New Orleans — Funding Secure

Rail Transit Online, March 2003  

The Bush administration has saved the original federal funding deal for the $161-million Canal Street streetcar project, which prior to the start of construction called for the federal government to pay 80 percent of the capital cost.  But last November, Republican congressman Harold Rogers of Kentucky, chairman of the transportation subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, decided that communities should shell out more for their transit projects and threatened to reduce the federal contribution to no more than 60 percent, a formula that the Regional Transit Authority might not have been able to afford (see RTOL, Dec. 2002).  RTA officials protested that it wasn’t fair to change funding rules in the midst of construction.  Rogers managed to sidetrack a $14.8-million federal grant until White House officials included $22 million for New Orleans in the fiscal year 2003 FTA budget, without identifying the level of local support.  An RTA spokesman said he didn’t anticipate any spending cuts for Canal Street in the fiscal year 2004 budget, ostensibly ending the financial crisis.  The main section of the line to City Park Avenue is scheduled to be completed this year and the branch along Carrollton Avenue by spring 2004.